Brian J. Thompson

B.Sc. University of Manchester, England
Ph.D. University of Manchester, England

Distinguished University Professor, Provost Emeritus, and Professor of Optics Emeritus, Dr. Thompson is an internationally renowned optical scientist and engineer. Dr. Thompson is one of a very limited number of professors to hold the title Distinguished University Professor currently; this title is conferred only on those individuals who have made substantial and varied contributions to both their own scholarly field and to the University over the course of many years.

Brian J. Thompson was Provost of the University of Rochester from 1984 to 1994. He joined the University in 1968 as director of the Institute of Optics and professor of optics. He then served as Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences from 1975-1984, and was named the University's first William F. May Professor of Engineering. In 1980 he received the University's Alumni Citation to faculty for outstanding scholarship and service to students.

Thompson is a leading researcher in the fields of coherent optics, holography, phase microscopy, and image processing. He has authored more than 180 scientific and technical papers. His book on physical optics, co-authored by George Parrent, has been translated into Russian, Polish and Chinese. Thompson was editor of the world's most widely circulated optics scientific journal, Optical Engineering, from 1990-1997, and has served on the editorial boards of many prestigious international journals. Professor Thompson is a fellow and former director of the Optical Society of America, a fellow and past president of SPIE, and a fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Physical Society of Great Britain.